My Husband and I are intending on moving to Southern Spain in January. We are not sure how it is going to go, we have enough funds to live on for a few months so won't have the financial aspect to worry about and we are trying to find IT related jobs for my Husband at the moment but it is proving difficult. We aim on moving near to Gibraltar where such work may be easier to find. We do have a few contacts in Spain who assure us that such jobs may be easier to find once we are there and are able to attend interviews etc, does anyone agree with this? I am just worried that we will end up returning to the UK once our money has ran out, or, that my Husband will need to go and work a contract in the UK and I will be left in Spain alot.

I also wondered if anyone can tell me what the average costs on bills are per month, i understand that water bills are tiny but what about electricity, gas, phone line?

Also, we aim on driving down to Spain, doing a bit of a road trip along the way, but, another question we have is quite important as we are due to renew our car insurance in 2 days and wondered if anyone could recommend a company that we can use in the UK and Spain or how we go about changing a UK car insurance to drive in Spain (and ofcourse France on the way).

Alot of questions I know but if anyone can help with any element I would be very grateful.

Welcome to the forum

I'm not sure of the cost of living down there, we're further up North in the Costa Blanca and in general our cost of living is about 30% less than the UK.

I'm assuming your friends have some contacts, as work here is difficult at the moment, so although you would be here to go to interviews, you have to find the jobs first and the economy here is not good.

As a Spanish resident, you won't be allowed to drive your UK on UK plates, and you will have to get it re matriculated on to Spanish plates. Whilst its on UK plates it must have a valid UK MOT. Many UK Insurance companies wont insure you if they know you have moved abroad, for obvious,reasons.

Funds for a couple of months, in my humble opinion, will be far too little ....... you should budget for a year!

I agree with Mitzy's post above, best to have a minimum of six months' money, preferably a year's money. The pot shrinks very quickly with no income.
Much better to maybe arrange interviews and have the job before leaving the UK, people don't realise how tight things have got recently, and speaking Spanish beforehand will be a huge benefit.

My wife and I are moving to Spain in Dec 08, driving over via France in our UK reg LHD car. We opted for Uk insurance through Marks & Spencer (good old M&S) as they included 2 months green card (European Insurance Cover) and UK & European Breadown and Recovery Assistance (essential when driving abroad). Ths should give us ample time to get to Spain, register the car to Spanish plates and sort out Spanish Car Insurance (the timings for all this is obviously critically connected to our Residencia, Padron applications etc)

I'm not sure it's 30% anymore, I think the gap has closed considerably.

The cosy of living on the CDS is not 30% less, I would say since the collapse of the pound it is like for like. I know some pull the council tax being less but only if you live in the campo or a small village house. Just settled ours and it was 877 euros. Electricity is higher here too. Just a little thing like Mince is cheaper per kilo in Sainsburys than here now. Living near Gibraltar will certainly get you cheaper cigs and booze thats all.

What is often forgotten is the cost of living is increasing considerably in the UK as well as Spain, so although prices increase here .... they do so in the UK also. When you consider power increases alone

When we moved here it was certainly the case, and I'm not aware, although happy to be corrected, that prices around here have risen at the same rate as the UK

Since Sept 2007 - Gas 50%
Electricity - 33%

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ion-drops.html

I echo all the above - I would be very wary of going ahead with the plans you have now. That will not be enough money to live on, and I completely agree that cost of living is on a par with the UK now, obviously some things are cheaper, but there are day-to-day things which are more expensive than England, so it works out like for like in my opinion.

Work over here is very difficult at the moment, it used to be that IT was the role to get into over here, but thats not the case anymore. I work in IT in Gibraltar, and all of the companies over here are cutting jobs, mainly due to the fact that most of the companies are gaming related, and they are suffering hugely in the current credit crunch.

Finally, on the matter of insurance, most of the bigger insurers will give you 60-90 days free cover in Europe.

But check the small print as often thats only if you are still a UK resident, its designed for people who go off touring.

My insurance co in the UK wouldn't insure me any more as soon as they knew I resided abroad

You can insure your uk car here no probs, and its cheaper than the uk inc full break down cover. What you have to remember is you need to have uk road tax at all times for pc plod to leave you alone. You can only get your road tax in uk if you have a uk mot or your car is less than three years old not needing an mot. If you can achieve all this leave it on uk plates till you know it works here for you.

Finish the advice, why not tell them if they have been here for more than 3 months they are classed as resident and have to matriculate their vehicle to Spanish plates ?

maybe her insurance agent didn't tell her

Your only chance of getting work is Spain is if you speak perfect spanish and even then its unlikley ,unemployment is high in Spain, I dont know how Gibraltar is fairing at the moment but I`d say its the only place you have a chance if you dont speak Spanish.

Bring money,loads of it , I`d say you need at least 20k euro to set up and pay your first years living expenses, it may take this long to find work

Your car? Cars are very very cheap in the UK at the moment ,sell your current one assuming its not a banger and buy a 1k pound one ,get insurance in spain,drive it down, look around for a spanish one then sell your UK one to one of the many returning expats.

This makes it sound very tough out here....it is!

Rgds

Rotor

Gibraltar is really struggling at the moment, a lot of people getting made redundant due to the gaming companies cutting back.

Getting very tough in the UK too though. Estimates of number to lose jobs in the next two years are generally between 500 thousand and 1 million, but some put them as high as 2 million.
Costs are sky rocketing depending on the supplier, Mitzyboy's 50 percent increase in gas looks conservative, and they want to increase by another 25 percent by the end of the year.
Charges to park at station has gone up 50 percent since last year - now 6 pounds per day, to increase to 7.50 in the new year.
Just took the kids to the cinema on Friday - 5 tickets in all, plus 5 ice creams -84 pounds!!!! Ignore the government statistics - prices in the South East are going up 7.5 p.a. and that is if you include big ticket items. Exclude them and you are probably talking well over 10 percent.